Wow, watch Comey lie under oath to Senator G when asked “have you ever been an anonymous source…or known someone else to be an anonymous source…?” He said strongly “never, no.” He lied as shown clearly on @foxandfriends.

Note that Trump puts this inside quotes, thus claiming that Grassley asked precisely this question in these words: “have you ever been an anonymous source…or known someone else to be an anonymous source…?” The money quote is the second phrase, because Andy McCabe testified, as Jerry Dunleavy noted yesterday, that Comey was aware that McCabe had authorized leaks:

So I did some digging.

On the left is Comey’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on 5/3/17.

Indeed, McCabe’s position is that he had authority to authorize these leaks on his own.

This is not a total defense of Comey, of course. I agree with Dunleavy that there is an arguable contradiction there — indicating, if not an outright lie, then perhaps an, um, “lack of candor” on Comey’s part. It’s troubling and should be investigated further. You could argue that Comey’s knowledge constituted a sort of authorization (just as you could argue that it didn’t).

But that doesn’t give President Trump the right to make up quotes. Things inside quotation marks should be actual quotes. No matter how you feel about whether Comey lied, or whether his knowledge amounted to authorization — none of that changes the fact that Trump made up a quote that was not actually said in Comey’s testimony.

Neither President Trump nor anyone else should make up quotes. Period.

If he does so — and he unquestionably did here — he should be called out, just like we would call out someone on the left who did the same.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/18/trump-twitter-accusation-against-comey-creates-non-existent-quote-out-of-thin-air/feed/81The Exit Polls Are in From the Russian Election, and You’ll Never Guess Who Wonhttp://patterico.com/2018/03/18/the-exit-polls-are-in-from-the-russian-election-and-youll-never-guess-who-won/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/18/the-exit-polls-are-in-from-the-russian-election-and-youll-never-guess-who-won/#commentsSun, 18 Mar 2018 21:08:42 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124938I’m not a big fan of the clickbait headline, but it’s a good gag in this case because the results were never in doubt.

Vladimir Putin will lead Russia for another six years, after securing an expected victory in the presidential election.

A Russian state exit poll gave him 73.9% of the vote, easily defeating his closest competitor.

The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race.

The scale of victory – which had been widely predicted – was a marked increase in his share of the vote from 2012, when he won 64%.

In all seriousness, let’s not call this an election. It’s a charade. The only meaning o the 74% number is how blatant Putin wants to make it.

A good point. Putin's much higher numbers would reflect the global decline in willingness to defend democracy, especially in USA. Why not go for 80%? 99%? Authoritarians are admired, not shunned. https://t.co/oYhvVP8IuD

I’m looking forward to Trump issuing his congratulations. My guess is that he’ll use the chance to call the “election” a sham and issue his harshest condemnation yet of the recent assassination attempt on British soil. LOL. Make sure to tip your waitresses, try the veal, I’m here all week.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/18/the-exit-polls-are-in-from-the-russian-election-and-youll-never-guess-who-won/feed/16Sunday Music: Stabat Mater, BWV 1083http://patterico.com/2018/03/18/sunday-music-stabat-mater-bwv-1083/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/18/sunday-music-stabat-mater-bwv-1083/#commentsSun, 18 Mar 2018 07:01:14 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124930It is the fifth Sunday in Lent. The title of today’s piece is “Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden” (Cancel, Highest, my sins). It’s an adaptation of a Stabat Mater by Pergolesi. This is a longer one, and you will be forgiven if you can’t make it through the whole thing. That said, if you listen to the beginning, you may be captivated enough to stick it out.

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/18/sunday-music-stabat-mater-bwv-1083/feed/3Wow: DOJ May Release (Redacted) Carter Page FISA Applicationhttp://patterico.com/2018/03/17/wow-doj-may-release-redacted-carter-page-fisa-application/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/17/wow-doj-may-release-redacted-carter-page-fisa-application/#commentsSat, 17 Mar 2018 23:30:08 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124926All those Very Confident Statements about what was contained in the Carter Page FISA application may be put to the test sometime soon. USA Todayreports that DOJ may release parts of the Carter Page FISA application that so far has been only described in the Devin Nunes #ReleaseTheMemo and the Adam Schiff response:

In dueling memos released last month, Republican members — led by California Rep. Devin Nunes — alleged that Justice and FBI officials abused their authority in targeting the former campaign adviser by improperly relying on an unsubstantiated dossier prepared by a former British spy. Democrats — led by California Rep. Adam Schiff —argued that the dossier was only part of the justification for the order, indicating that Page had been deemed an “agent of the Russian government” prior to the FBI receiving the dossier.

The release of both memos, Justice lawyers wrote Friday, requires “the government to carefully review FISA materials related to Carter Page to determine what information contained in them has been declassified and whether any such declassified information can be released to the plaintiff in response to its (freedom of information) request.

“That review is ongoing,” Justice lawyers said, asking the court to approve a July 20 deadline for Justice’s National Security Division and the FBI to complete the examination. “The government does not make this request lightly.”

The one thing we know is that everyone will claim they were Right All Along, even if they were wrong all along. Now would be a good time for people to review the two memos and all the punditry that claimed to “know” what is contained in the FISA application, to hold accountable those who told us lies or claimed to know things they couldn’t.

This is a welcome development for those of us who rejected #TheMemo and #TheCounterMemo as partisan exercises that shed only minimal light on what was contained in the FISA application. We called on Trump to #ReleaseTheDocumentation, and it looks like his DOJ is being forced to do exactly that. Let’s hope DOJ releases as much as they can, within the constraints of the need to protect sources.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/17/wow-doj-may-release-redacted-carter-page-fisa-application/feed/35Let’s Not Forget About McCabe’s Conflict Of Interest Based On His Wifehttp://patterico.com/2018/03/17/lets-not-forget-about-mccabes-conflict-of-interest-based-on-his-wife/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/17/lets-not-forget-about-mccabes-conflict-of-interest-based-on-his-wife/#commentsSat, 17 Mar 2018 18:00:18 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124922Should Andrew McCabe have been fired? I haven’t seen the Inspector General report, and so I don’t know if Andrew McCabe lied (or, I’m sorry, “lacked candor under oath” in speaking to) investigators for the Inspector General. I agree with David French, who says:

Absent access to the underlying testimony that allegedly triggered the firing, I’m not sure why people are opining so definitively about its propriety. But, hey, everyone’s an expert on FISA applications they haven’t read, so I suppose we can be experts about this also. https://t.co/3hBiBwTj1c

I note that it seems from McCabe’s statement alone that he was aware that he was, shall we say, not entirely accurate in his initial statements. He says things like:

I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them. . . . to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair.

Yeah, well, I’ll wryly note that blaming falsehoods on chaos is an excuse that doesn’t usually work so well when offered as a defense by people prosecuted for telling falsehoods to McCabe’s erstwhile employer.

So it seems that McCabe himself acknowledges that he got some things wrong, at a minimum. But to run around claiming he lied, based on evidence we haven’t seen . . . I’ll leave that to others who feel comfortable taking that position. I don’t. Yet.

But that doesn’t mean McCabe is beyond reproach, by a longshot.

You might remember that in October 2016, before the election, I was ranting about the fact that a Terry McAuliffe PAC had donated almost half a million to McCabe’s’s wife’s election campaign . . . and yet McCabe had not recused himself from the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Granted, it’s not crystal clear that McCabe acted as a purely partisan warrior there. If you believe the leaks that he authorized to be made to the Wall Street Journal, he pushed for an investigation of the Clinton Foundation. Then again, as the Washington Postnotes today, that same story demonstrated that “some FBI officials thought [McCabe] was standing in the way of the Clinton Foundation investigation.”

The point is, if Hillary Clinton’s bag man Terry McAuliffe was delivering sacks of cash to his wife, McCabe had no business ever being anywhere in the chain of command over anything having to do with Hillary Clinton — not the email investigation, not the Clinton Foundation, not any of it. I don’t care that his wife had already lost by the time he became deputy director. The consideration had already been given, and he should have recused himself — yet he didn’t do so until November 1, 2016, which was far too late. I’m not sure whether that failure alone is grounds for termination, but it brought discredit on the FBI. And new evidence that McCabe may have been less than forthright about whether he attended his wife’s campaign events and so forth only contribute to the suspicion.

Whether that means it was appropriate to take hints from Trump and rush to release an investigation seemingly for the express purpose of stripping this guy of his pension, I’m not so sure. Again, I’m taking the unpopular position that we ought to know the facts before opining. (I know, right? Saying that on a blog is such a buzzkill.) But I’m no fan of Andrew McCabe. That I can tell you.

Speaking of recusals, Trump’s lawyer (first claiming to speak on behalf of Trump and then walking that back) this morning connected McCabe’s firing to Russiagate. If the real reason for McCabe’s firing was Russiagate, then why was Jeff Sessions (who recused from the Russia investigation) involved? At this point we have nothing beyond Trump’s idiot lawyer’s statement — although Trump did spike the ball over McCabe’s firing with a gusto that seems . . . over-the-top given the stated reasons for it.

John Sexton at Hot Air says that “the reactions to the [McCabe] firing are falling into two distinct camps” — one casting McCabe as victim (pro-Trump) and one casting him as hero (anti-Trump). Well, of course. Reactions to all issues in American life, from Senate races to whether Americans should watch football games, eventually fall into pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps. But I’m not much of a joiner and I never went to camp. So I’ll just note that all of these things can be true:

1. Donald Trump did not “collude” with Russia to hack emails.

2. Donald Trump is smearing Mueller and good people at the FBI to discredit the Russia investigation.

3. McCabe was a rotten apple who deserved to go.

I’m not saying any of these things is necessarily true. But they all could be.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/17/lets-not-forget-about-mccabes-conflict-of-interest-based-on-his-wife/feed/317Happy Birthday to My Dadhttp://patterico.com/2018/03/17/happy-birthday-to-my-dad-14/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/17/happy-birthday-to-my-dad-14/#commentsSat, 17 Mar 2018 15:50:04 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124916As I have done every March 17 since I started this blog, I am wishing my Dad a HappyBirthday.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/17/happy-birthday-to-my-dad-14/feed/7Kelly: Tillerson Was on the Toilet When I Told Him He Was Firedhttp://patterico.com/2018/03/16/kelly-tillerson-was-on-the-toilet-when-i-told-him-he-was-fired/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/16/kelly-tillerson-was-on-the-toilet-when-i-told-him-he-was-fired/#commentsSat, 17 Mar 2018 03:30:50 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124905If you work for Donald Trump, you signed up to be humiliated. You thought John Kelly was above that? You thought wrong:

Reporters gathered at the White House on Friday were stunned when Chief of Staff John Kelly shared a very embarrassing story about outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

. . . .

Tillerson, Kelly told the room, was suffering from a stomach bug during a diplomatic swing through Africa, and was using a toilet when Kelly broke the news to him.

Sources were stunned that, even in an off-record setting, Kelly would say this—to a room filled with White House officials and political reporters—about Tillerson, who does not officially leave the State Department until the end of the month.

Kelly is routinely touted as one of the more mature members of Trump’s top brass and has often been branded as one of the “adults” in charge.

I never really shared the whole “Wow John Kelly is so awesome” point of view. Looks like I was right.

I don’t really feel that sorry for Tillerson. Anyone who signed up to work for Trump knew that they would be working for a guy who likes to belittle people and show who’s in charge.

This is just the latest example. There will be more. And one day, I predict, John Kelly’s day of humiliation will come too.

FBI’s Andrew McCabe is fired just before retiring. Former deputy director became lightning rod for Clinton email and Russia probes.

McCabe, who had stepped down from his post earlier this year but remained an FBI employee, had been accused by the Justice Department’s inspector general of authorizing the disclosure of sensitive information to a reporter and misleading investigators when asked about it.

McCabe had been a lightning rod in the political battles surrounding the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russian agents to interfere in the 2016 presidential race.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/16/breaking-andrew-mccabe-fired/feed/95O.J. Simpson: That Colin Kaepernick Guy Really Messed Up by Not Respecting Our Flaghttp://patterico.com/2018/03/16/o-j-simpson-that-colin-kaepernick-guy-really-messed-up-by-not-respecting-our-flag/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/16/o-j-simpson-that-colin-kaepernick-guy-really-messed-up-by-not-respecting-our-flag/#commentsFri, 16 Mar 2018 20:00:37 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124901Look, I get that O.J. butchered two people and everything (at least according to the Fake News Media), but while I don’t like O.J., you have to admit one thing: O.J. Simpson fights for the culture war issues other people are too scared to fight for:

O.J. Simpson says he agrees with Donald Trump — Colin Kaepernick “made a mistake” taking a knee during the national anthem … and completely disrespected the American flag.

“I think Colin made a mistake,” Simpson told The Buffalo News … “I really appreciate what he was trying to say. I thought he made a bad choice in attacking the flag.”

“I grew up at a time when deacons were in the KKK. I don’t disrespect the Bible because of those guys. The flag shouldn’t be disrespected because of what cops do. The flag represents what we want America to be.”

“When he did it the first time I thought, ‘Well, you took a gamble, and I give you credit.’ But it was him continuing to do it where he made the biggest mistake.”

“I’m a firm believer of doing what you think is right, but I would always stand for the flag.”

We need more firm believers of doing what they think is right in politics. I’m going to say something that may be a little controversial: has this guy ever thought about running for office? I’m not saying O.J. Simpson should be our next President, mind you. But if he ran . . . hey, he’d be better than Hillary, amirite?

And if he did actually kill Nicole and Ron, well, that just shows that he knows how to engage in a street fight. And politics is kinda like a street fight.

Again: I’m not suggesting that I would vote for O.J. Simpson to be our next President of the United States. But come on.

You have to like a guy who tells it like it is.

Whoa, wait. I just got through reading to the end of the article:

But Simpson says he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Trump when it comes to politics.

“Somebody asked me if I’d have voted for him … Probably not, but I only know two of my friends I’d vote to be president. Some of my best, best besties I would not vote to be president. That has no bearing on it, you know?”

Doesn’t support Trump? To hell with him. Forget I ever said a good word about him.

]]>http://patterico.com/2018/03/16/o-j-simpson-that-colin-kaepernick-guy-really-messed-up-by-not-respecting-our-flag/feed/86When Will Trump *Personally* Accuse Putin of Poisoning Someone on British Soil?http://patterico.com/2018/03/15/when-will-trump-personally-accuse-putin-of-poisoning-someone-on-british-soil/
http://patterico.com/2018/03/15/when-will-trump-personally-accuse-putin-of-poisoning-someone-on-british-soil/#commentsThu, 15 Mar 2018 16:00:48 +0000http://patterico.com/?p=124895Over at Hot Air, my favorite blogger Allahpundit notes yesterday’s strong response from the Trump administration against Russia’s use of a nerve agent on a man and his daughter on British soil. The White House put out a strongly worded statement! Nikki Haley took to the floor of the U.N. and blasted Russia (as Caleb Howe noted here)! These statements have to have been approved by Trump, Allahpundit notes, saying: “I don’t know what else hardcore Trump critics could want rhetorically than what Haley serves up here.”

Mr. Trump, who was visiting Missouri on Wednesday, has not personally addressed the attack since London assigned blame to Russia and left it instead to aides to express public solidarity with Prime Minister Theresa May after she expelled 23 Russian diplomats, canceled high-level contacts and vowed to impose more sanctions.

. . . .

[F]or whatever reason, Mr. Trump avoided saying so personally in public, much as he has generally avoided condemning Russia for its election meddling. He has allowed top advisers to denounce Moscow for its interference in American democracy, but when it comes to his own Twitter posts or comments, he has largely stuck to equivocal language, seemingly reluctant to accept the consensus conclusion of his intelligence agencies and intent on voicing no outrage or criticism of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, for whom he has expressed admiration.

And I’ll remind you, as I said yesterday: what Trump himself says is really all that matters, as Garry Kasparov explains:

Honestly, Pompeo, Tillerson, whatever. Putin is a mafia boss and only cares about what another boss has to say. Anything Trump's admin says about Putin is nearly irrelevant as long as Trump himself refuses to stand up to Putin.

The key words there are “Trump himself.” Trump himself still hasn’t unequivocally accused Putin, using his own words coming from his own wordhole. And that is what matters to Putin. Not what his administration says. What HE says.

As, as I write this, he’s yammering on Twitter about a trade deficit with Canada or some other idiotic nonsense like that.

Let me say it now: I will not be particularly impressed should we get a TelePrompTerized statement, read in that sing-song “someone else wrote this for me” voice . . . and later undercut by off-the-cuff remarks that show he doesn’t believe it. You know: kind of like the way Trump has handled accusations that Putin was behind the hacking of the DNC. There’s the official message — but then there’s the casual “I told Vlad I believed him when he said he didn’t do the hacking” undercutting of that official message.

Somehow, I doubt very sincerely that we will ever get a toughly-worded, unequivocal finger pointed personally by Donald Trump at Vladimir Putin. About this — or anything else, for that matter.

BY THE WAY: It’s been taken as an article of faith among the Trump-supporting right that you are clinically insane if you happened to notice that Rex Tillerson was fired right after taking a harder line on Russia than the rest of the Trump administration. Why, it was all about Iran! The Free Beacon tells us so! Sure, it happened right in the middle of Tillerson’s “sorry my boss called y’all s***holes, Africa!” apology tour, and cut that planned trip short. But anyone who thought that sudden timing odd, and notes that it sends a message of weakness to Putin, needs a stay in a mental hospital!

At times, White House officials said, Mr. Tillerson’s behavior verged on insubordination. The administration, for example, was extremely cautious in responding to reports that Russia was behind the deadly nerve-gas attack in Britain. But when Mr. Tillerson was asked about it in Africa, he said, “It appears that it clearly came from Russia.”

His statement infuriated the White House, which had crafted its talking points with lawyers at the State Department to keep the United States in lock step with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain. Instead, an official said, Mr. Tillerson made the White House look like it was soft on Mr. Putin, which he insisted was not the intention.

So, you see, the White House was, in fact, upset with Tillerson over his Russia statements — just as I have been saying. But their defense is that the White House wanted to be in lockstep with the U.K. Okayyy . . . well, the leader of the U.K. just stood up in front of the world and accused the Russian state of being behind this crime, with no ifs, ands, or buts. You can watch the video of it here.

And the fact that Trump hasn’t similarly pointed the finger at Putin personally (and probably won’t) means that being in lockstep with our ally isn’t really that important to Trump. Which means the administration was not telling the truth in citing the need to be in lockstep. Which means something else was going on.

Of course, Tillerson’s head was on the chopping block for a long time. Iran was part of the reason. But the timing was a smooch to Vladimir Putin. And I think it was meant to be.